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From: Chris Croughton <chris@keristor.net>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: plural of "performance"
Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2006 18:40:12 +0000
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On Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:53:58 +1100, cguttman
<4everclever4@web.de> wrote:
> is there a plural of "performance", ie, performances?
> For example, the performance of an athlete - is it correct to use the
> plural of this word while conveying the same information: "the
> performances of athletes"?
>
> I was told that "performances" only pertains to artists. For example,
> the performances of artists in a circus.
They are different things, which happen to use the same word.
A measurement of performance is a continuous thing, it doesn't have a
plural. So an athlete may have performed better than any previous
performance (not performances).
A dramatic event is also called "a performance", but in this case it is
a discrete event and so there can be multiples of them.
Of course, this is confused when the performance (measurement) of a
gymnast may be reckoned by their performance (event) in public. But
then English is not a logical language.
There's more illogic in that some other continuous measurements (depth,
time, etc.) can take plural forms...
Chris C
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